A Clockwork Orange

1971. Great Britain. Written and directed by Stanley Kubrick. With Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke. “A notorious 1971 movie based on a scandalous 1962 book, Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange went its own way in explicating the violent abandon of Alex (McDowell) and his vicious droogs, who beat, rape, and rob their way across a moonscaped London to the strains of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (and “Singin’ in the Rain”). Although his film was condemned for its futuristic/nihilistic view of humanity-to-be, and long banned in Britain for a copycat assault, Kubrick’s argument was an aesthetic one: Alex, a derailed aesthete at heart, was really a victim of bad taste. It’s the visual gag in what remains an alarming movie” (John Anderson, Newsday/Variety). NYFCC Best Picture, 1971. 137 min.

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